Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

blog.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 89 posts

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#41

Post by uniformlyrandom »

naravara wrote: post #26
ryanmercer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In regards to that article: >If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance. Someone in the industry, someone with considerable influence, someone active on this very forum, once told me when asked what their secret was "I worry it's been more luck than skill". At the time my immediate thought was "bullshit, you had to have busted your ass but your background also had to have had great influence…

In a lot of cases I would say that working your ass off basically buys you the lottery ticket, but whether it pays off is largely luck. Innate talent and ability might skew the odds in your favor slightly, but I think it's more likely that they just lower the work-cost of the lottery ticket.

Exactly. You cannot make it without luck (you need to be in the right place at the right time), but you greatly improve your chances if you are at the right place most of the time.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#42

Post by [deleted] »

thinkcontext wrote: post #27
jonas21 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Anyone who makes investments in new technologies can expect some of them to work out poorly.

This was more than one in a portfolio of investments that didn't work out. He was feted on TED and other venues and hailed as a greentech prophet for making grand pronouncements about how ethanol from wood chips was going to crush oil on a very short timeline. In addition to all the investor money, he secured substantial federal and state money for his projects. But his technology could not do what he promised, see t…

[deleted]

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#43

Post by hoaw »

jhayward wrote: post #34

There are several comments here about Khosla and his efforts to convert public right of way to private property on the California Coast. It's fair to ask, "why is this relevant to a video of his views on the future (tech)?" It's relevant because the beach controversy shows that the future that Kohsla wants to create is inimicable to the future that I want to see. He sees a big-L libertarian future, where the strong e…

Yes, allocation of resources is pretty much _the_ issue right know in terms of the future. There is certainly a lot of opportunity to capture wealth for yourself, to mistreat the environment and in other ways "win". But in the end it is those who can afford to leave things on the table that are going to really win. The companies that can deliver more value to their employees, the cities can provide more affordable housing and the countries that are doing better in terms of e.g. emissions. It is by distributing rather than capturing wealth that people and societies are going to be able to do more than the ordinary. This is when you will afford to innovate and do so from a position of strength.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#44

Post by hoaw »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #40
davidw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That goes for a lot of videos, TBH. Lots of introductions, jokes, uhms, ahs and other junk, and you can't even search them to look for, say, a thing you're interested in.

This was the exact reason I stopped listening to NDT's Star Talk. Wayyy too many mediocre jokes, intros, outros, how's it goings, what's ups, wayyy too little science.

It is supposed to be like that. It is entertainment made for a broader audience. And it is also fairly "cheap" to make. If you want more science you can buy his books or watch cosmos (a new one is coming this year). Or you can "graduate" and go read more specific material. Someday someone might figure out how to make more specific content for a lot of people, but it mostly hasn't happened yet.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#45

Post by ryandrake »

StreamBright wrote: post #8

I am not sure how relevant the view of these billionaires when: - they did it exactly once - we know from studies that these people are nondeterministicly getting rich[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-...

People forget that Survivorship Bias is real.

I’m reminded of the coin toss example in one of my college classes. Everyone in the class stood up and flipped a coin. If it was tails you lose and sit down. Flip again and again until there was only one person standing. Then the prof “interviewed” him to ask him how he became such a good heads-flipper and what advice he had for other aspiring heads-flippers.

Listening only to people who struck it rich in business is like getting lottery advice from only lottery winners.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#46

Post by drak0n1c »

hoaw wrote: post #43
jhayward wrote: post #34

There are several comments here about Khosla and his efforts to convert public right of way to private property on the California Coast. It's fair to ask, "why is this relevant to a video of his views on the future (tech)?" It's relevant because the beach controversy shows that the future that Kohsla wants to create is inimicable to the future that I want to see. He sees a big-L libertarian future, where the strong e…

Yes, allocation of resources is pretty much _the_ issue right know in terms of the future. There is certainly a lot of opportunity to capture wealth for yourself, to mistreat the environment and in other ways "win". But in the end it is those who can afford to leave things on the table that are going to really win. The companies that can deliver more value to their employees, the cities can provide more affordable ho…

You can make the argument against private ownership of certain types of land for the purposes of public benefit, but I don't see the environmental point in this case. Privately owned areas, particularly beaches, usually fare better environmentally than high-traffic public access beaches.

In the Philippines and Hawaii, beaches that are restricted due to indigenous sovereignty or private ownership don't have the litter and degraded reefs of their public beaches. Unfortunately there has been a tragedy of the commons with public access.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#47

Post by gaius »

StreamBright wrote: post #30
leesec wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, might as well never listen to anyone then.

I totally listen to reasonable people talking about reasonable things. However, I would never use the reason that somebody is a billionaire to pay more attention. Let me give you examples. Elon Musk in Windows (I disagree with him, even in 2000, Linux kernel version 2.2.12-20, RedHat version 6.1 --old versioning--) "In the year of 2000, Windows is considered much better than good old Unix platform. Musk wanted to mov…

Slight tangent: at one company, years after Yegge’s blog post, a senior manager presented those principles as his own cunningly developed strategy. The ridicule was palpable.

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#48

Post by evancharles »

jhayward wrote: post #34

There are several comments here about Khosla and his efforts to convert public right of way to private property on the California Coast. It's fair to ask, "why is this relevant to a video of his views on the future (tech)?" It's relevant because the beach controversy shows that the future that Kohsla wants to create is inimicable to the future that I want to see. He sees a big-L libertarian future, where the strong e…

I'm weary of getting into this, but I don't think that's the right conclusion from the beach issue. I'm not intimately familiar but if you care about it, I'd recommend reading what he wrote about it. https://medium.com/@vkhosla/martins-beach-a-matter-of-princi...

(I work at Khosla Ventures and have raised money from Khosla in the past)

Re: Vinod Khosla with Sam Altman on How to Build the Future [video]

#49

Post by writepub »

jhayward wrote: post #34

There are several comments here about Khosla and his efforts to convert public right of way to private property on the California Coast. It's fair to ask, "why is this relevant to a video of his views on the future (tech)?" It's relevant because the beach controversy shows that the future that Kohsla wants to create is inimicable to the future that I want to see. He sees a big-L libertarian future, where the strong e…

X's viewpoint on Y needn't have any logical correlation/causation on X's viewpoint on Z, assuming Y & Z are orthogonal and independent.

It is fair to criticize Khosla on beach access, but his investment record is self explanatory for his opinions on tech to be worthy of an audience.

If you believe otherwise, you may also believe boycotting [YC, HN] to be valid and fair, for giving Khosla a platform, and accepting funding for post-seed rounds. This would be wrong. What we need in the valley echo-chamber is a way to disagree without carrying grudges. Diversity of thought is just as valuable as diversity of the labor force.

Most importantly, Khosla's funding, though self-serving, creates jobs and helps companies - that's something we can all get behind unequivocally

Post reply on HN